PR stars shine at the PR Academy awards

More than 100 students gathered at the Royal Society of Arts in London last night to celebrate the achievements of this year’s PR Academy Course Award winners and to hear from guest speaker Alastair Campbell.

The PR Academy is known for its outstanding courses and works alongside the Chartered Institute of Public Relations CIPR, International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, AMEC, and the Association for Project Management, APM.

Alastair Campbell, @campbellclaret, is a writer, strategist and communicator, and is best known for his previous role as Tony Blair’s spokesman.

The PR Academy courses cover a broad range of skills that are needed for today’s comms professional. I am contacted regularly by students who are researching or writing papers, and am constantly impressed by the topics and their dedication.

Trends in PR

Their fourth annual PR Academy Trends survey recently found that 47 per cent of its past and present students named measurement as a subject where they had a skills gap.

Three-quarters of respondents said holding a professional qualification has led to career progression, or they thought it would this year.

Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) said their employer provided access to qualifications but 37 per cent said training budgets had been cut or frozen by their organisation over the past four years.

Last night’s awards

I was delighted to judge the Internal Communication Certificate category for last night’s awards #PRstars, and would like to congratulate this year’s winners:

CIPR Advanced Certificate in Public Relations: Hannah Williamson

CIPR Diploma in Public Relations: Teresa Roberts

CIPR Public Affairs Diploma: Caroline Keohane

CIPR Internal Communication Certificate: Jessica Staff

CIPR Internal Communication Diploma: Gloria Lombardi

PR Academy Digital Communication Certificate: Charlotte Francis.

Well done to you all and to everyone who has completed their studying. I was planning to be there in person to congratulate the students, but unfortunately was feeling unwell yesterday, so had to miss the night. But it has been great to read all the conversations online today and I hear it was a fun night.

Ann Pilkington, Co-Founder of PR Academy @PRAcademy, said: “While we introduced these annual awards to recognise those graduating with the best overall distinction from our courses, they are about recognising the achievements of all who have chosen to invest in their chosen profession by getting qualified.”

Professional qualificationsAre you thinking about taking a professional qualification? In my FIR presents All Things IC with Rachel Miller podcast last month I interviewed PR Academy’s Kevin Ruck and also Course Director of the Kingston IC diploma and masters courses, Liz Cochrane.